My dad had been the one to encourage me to move. “Margo,” he’d said, “I’ve never been able to show you the world because I’ve had to be here minding the store. But I promised myself when the time came, I wouldn’t push the shop onto you. You need to see what else is out there in the world before you decide where you want to be and what you want to do.”
He gave me fifty thousand American Airlines miles and encouraged me to go anywhere I wanted. It was an amazing gift that allowed me to spend a week in Europe, but it might as well have been Oz, because as I traveled along the European rails by myself, the one thought that I couldn’t shake was that there was no place like home.
I moved to Las Vegas—close enough to home to feel connected but wacky enough to stretch my boundaries—and bounced around a series of low-paying jobs. Eventually I took the job with Magic Maynard. It wasn’t the best job in the world, but it was fun—except for the nights he sawed me in half. I’d never get used to that trick.
“How’s Area 51?” I asked.
“It’s amazing. This guy papier-machéd a series of gray alien heads that are out of this world.” He laughed at his own joke. “After dinner he took us to his garage. He has the whole crew of the starship Enterprise. Even the red shirts who get killed in the first five minutes of the show.”
My stomach turned at the mention of the word killed.
“There’s too much to fit in the back of Don’s car so we’re going to rent a trailer in the morning. What about you? How are things in Proper?”
Judging from his tone, he hadn’t heard the news about Blitz. I didn’t want to tell him anything that would upset him—not while he was still recovering from his heart attack—but I couldn’t pretend it hadn’t happened.
“Blitz Manners is dead,” I said. “He was killed at his birthday party.” The phone was silent for a few seconds. “Dad? Are you still there?”
“I’m here.”
“The police think Ebony was involved because she was standing over his body with the goose knife in her hand when I walked in on them, but she couldn’t have done it.”
“Margo, slow down. Tell me what happened.”
I closed my eyes. The image of Blitz’s body lying facedown in the puddle of blood slipped into place like a slide show. Slowly, I felt myself rock back and forth. “Ebony was in the kitchen. It was time to carve the goose. I wanted to be helpful so I went back to see if there was something I could do. When I walked in, his body was facedown in a puddle of blood and Ebony was standing over him with the carving knife in her hand.”
“Did the police question her?”
“They questioned everybody. We all had to wait until they took our statements. I think Ebony and I were the last two people to talk to them.”
“Where’s she now?” he asked.
I flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “At her store, probably. The last time I saw her was this morning. Someone vandalized her car and Dig towed it for her.”
“Margo, listen carefully. If the police go digging into Ebony’s past, they’re going to find some things out that she’d rather not have become public. You need to do something for her.”
“Sure, Dad, what?”
“You need to contact Takenouchi Hoshiyama and ask him for his help.”
Chapter 9
“WHAT DOES TAK Hoshiyama have to do with anything?” I asked.
“You know him?”
“He was at the party. He’s a friend of Blitz’s.”
“Tak is friendly with most people, I’d imagine. He worked for the district attorney’s office in Clark County until a few months ago.”
“He’s a lawyer?” I asked.
“No, city planner, I think. I don’t know why he moved to Proper, but when Don had trouble with his neighbor encroaching on his property line, Tak was a big help.”
“We’re talking about murder here, not property lines,” I said.
“Margo, Tak is a smart man and he comes from a good family. Everything’s going to be okay, but Ebony is going to need some help. Do you want me to come home? I can.”
“No, you haven’t had a chance to get out of Proper for years. Stay with Don.”
“Only if you’ll promise to call Tak. Think about everything Ebony’s done for you. She’s our family. Do this for her.”
“You don’t have to ask twice.”
The tone of the conversation shifted from the joy of discovering the sci-fi costumes to the seriousness of Ebony’s situation. My dad had promised to head back the following day. I told him to take it easy and promised to call Tak in the morning. Though sincere, both promises felt empty. Usually a talk with my dad left me feeling warm and cozy. Today, not so much.
*
EBONY didn’t answer any of her phones. I left messages to call me back and hung up. My next call was to my roommate in Vegas. Maynard expected me to show up for work on Tuesday, and it wasn’t looking as though I was going to make it.
“Margo? Is this Margo? The phone says it’s you but I can’t hear you. Hold on, let me get to the hallway, where I get better reception. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Hello? Margo?”